STOCKTON - Last year, Curtis Gilroy told the House Armed Services Committee's military personnel subcommittee that "we have a crisis in this country" regarding the fitness of people attempting to join the armed forces.

STOCKTON - Last year, Curtis Gilroy told the House Armed Services Committee's military personnel subcommittee that "we have a crisis in this country" regarding the fitness of people attempting to join the armed forces.

Gilroy, the Pentagon's director of accession policy with oversight for recruiting the active duty force, cited weight and obesity among the shortcomings that disqualify about three-quarters of 17- to-24-year-olds from serving.

Closer to home, Staff Sgt. Erick Vera with the U.S. Army's recruiting station in Stockton - ranked as one of the nation's fattest cities - is constantly telling overweight men and women interested in signing up what they need to do before they're eligible to enlist.

One who listened is Chris Lusk, 17, a native of Stockton who showed interest in the Army in December, when he weighed in at 242 pounds on a 5-foot-10-inch frame. Since then, he's slimmed down 50 pounds. Maybe more importantly, Lusk and those around him say the physical changes also have led to a more positive mental outlook.

Lusk, a self-described former couch potato who since June has run an average of 7 miles a day and has convinced his mom that it's better to have fruits and vegetables in the house than burritos and Hot Pockets, will ship out Jan. 4 to Fort Benning, Ga., when he finishes high school in December.

"I feel more alive, more energetic. I get random comments like, 'Chris, you look like a completely different person.' I feel like it, too," said Lusk, who attends one.Success school operated by the San Joaquin County Office of Education.

"When I first started working in this program (last fall), I noticed he had a pretty bad attitude. Roughly about the time he met the recruiter is when his attitude started to change. He started putting in a lot more effort as far as school work is concerned and had a lot more positive attitude toward academics. I think Chris made the decision to graduate, and I think that put him on the right path to losing this weight," Holbrook said.

Holbrook recalled that Lusk gradually went from getting rides home after school last fall to skateboarding to running the 7 miles.

"Every day, he brings an Army backpack with him and changes into his running clothes after school and takes off running. That's a huge transformation right there," Holbrook said.

Until age 12, Lusk said he used to swim regularly, but that ended and he never played sports in school or for a club.

"I was the one sitting down playing video games all the time," he said.

As for his weight issue, "It just happened. Why did I ever let myself get that big?" Lusk asked himself.

He said Vera, the Army recruiter, originally wouldn't take him but suggested he pursue the Army's Future Soldiers Training Program.

"We do training, physical training from marching to learning land navigation. It helps you learn before you get into basic training," Lusk said.

Vera admits Lusk "came a long way," losing 50 pounds in seven months. That's especially difficult in a county where more than 36 percent of all adults are considered overweight, according to a recent report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

"I see a lot of that, especially when they finish high school. They're not walking as much; they're less active. In this area, it's eating habits and culture. Especially in the Spanish culture, where if you're fat, you're healthy," said Vera, a native of Peru who grew up around Miami and had to lose 50 pounds himself before he could join the Army.

Military recruiting and weight loss made headlines last year when Tracy's Daniel Ruf collapsed and died while exercising to lose weight so he could enlist in the Marine Corps.

Vera explained how he deals with prospective Army recruits who are overweight.

"I don't push them. It's a self-driven thing. We give them little goals to accomplish. We're more like counselors; we don't drill them. Our job is to keep them motivated and out of trouble until they ship out," Vera said.

Lusk said he never really thought of himself as a role model while he was dropping pounds.

"I don't really have a message, but people who need to lose weight and don't, they're not trying," he said.